Time's Ashes
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: -12 in 'Twilight Storm'- An unexpected discovery and a terrifying attack leaves Bella trapped on a war-torn Earth, with only a familiar-yet-unknown old man to help her restore what should have been…
1. Secrets of the Past

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: A new take on one of my original stories- I lost what I'd written due to a virus before I could upload anything and couldn't be bothered rewriting it until now-, this one sees Bella Swan facing her greatest challenge, as well as meeting some of the Doctor's oldest friends and enemies…

Time's Ashes

Lying on my bed in my room in the TARDIS, I stared up the ceiling, feeling overwhelmed by just how pointless my time with the Doctor had been.

Seeing Steven Taylor had been an interesting experience, and it had been fascinating to find out more about the world he'd created, but after we'd left, despite my attempts to distract myself in the library, I felt like it just reinforced for me that I wasn't a normal companion by any stretch of the imagination.

OK, so I felt like I was more willing to act on my own than I had been before I'd met the Doctor; what had I ever actually done since I'd joined him? I'd been so dependent on Edward to get anywhere when I lived in Forks, and when he'd left I'd relied on Jacob- even if I hadn't consciously realised I was relying on him- to pull me out of it; the Doctor was encouraging me to stand up for myself more, but in the end, when I looked back on what I'd done since I joined him, was I any further along?

"Bella?" the Doctor's voice said from outside my room, prompting me to sit up and walk over to the door, abandoning my train of thought; if the Doctor was coming to see me, I didn't want to appear too depressed.

"Yes?" I said as I opened the door, the Doctor standing casually outside, clearly unaware of the mental turmoil I'd been experiencing.

"We've been drifting long enough; thought I'd drop in and ask if you wanted to help me pick our next destination," the Doctor explained with a smile.

"Oh," I said, glancing down at myself to make sure I was dressed- I'd lost track of how long I'd been lying around my room, and wasn't sure if I'd even bothered to change in the first place- before I stood up and followed the Doctor back to the console room.

"Anyway," the Doctor said as we finally reached our destination, my friend moving over to the console with an elaborate flourish, "would you prefer-?"

Before the Doctor could finish his sentence, the TARDIS let out a sudden screeching sound that I'd never heard it make before, prompting the Doctor to step back and look anxiously at his ship. As we watched, a part of the console seemed to shift, various components moving aside as two small objects rose up from the console interior. They were identical in appearance, appearing to be gold bracelets with three swirled lines focused around what I assumed would be the top if they were worn around a person's wrist, but I would have known that there was more to them than the obvious due to the Doctor's haunted expression when he saw them.

"What are these?" I asked, looking curiously at the Doctor as he stared at the bracelets.

"Time Rings," the Doctor said, still looking solemnly at the strange objects.

"Time Rings?" I repeated in confusion; not only did the name not fit their size, but what they had to do with time completely eluded me…

"They were developed after I left Gallifrey the first time; these are actually fairly basic ones," the Doctor explained, turning away from the rings to look at me. "Basically, once you put them on, if you turn the control at the top- on these versions, anyway; the first one I encountered was operated by remote-, it sends you to and from a specific temporal location when you touch it and think of your destination; bit more basic than a TARDIS, but a useful means of getting about if you have a specific destination in mind and need to attend to specific business very quickly."

"Oh," I said, reaching down to pick up one of the rings.

"Bella, wait-" the Doctor began, just as I touched the Time Ring on the left. As soon as soon as my fingers made contact with it, a red light emerged from the ring, generating a thin red beam that reminded me of scanners I'd seen in films, which flashed over my body before it vanished. I was about to ask the Doctor what had happened when the nearest monitor suddenly turned on, revealing an old man with white hair hanging down around his ears looking solemnly at the screen.

"_Hello there, Bella Swan, and you, if you're there, young fellow_," the old man said, looking slightly amused as he spoke, something about the way the Doctor stared at the screen making it clear that he wasn't going to accept any interruption until this unexpected message had finished. "_If you're receiving this, then you are about to experience a very difficult set of events. If you wish to come through what you are about to experience intact, Miss Swan must put on the Time Ring that she has just come in contact with, and activate it when the attack begins_."

"Attack?" the Doctor and I said simultaneously.

"_The second time ring will be required for later, but Miss Swan must take it and turn the dial on the top counter-clockwise now_," the old man said, before moving back slightly and looking at the screen in a pointed manner, as though waiting for us to do something. With the Doctor giving me a firm stare, I simply reached out and did as I had been instructed, taking the other Time Ring and putting it in my pocket out of a lack of anything else to do with it.

"_I assume you've done that by now, mmm_?" the old man said; I didn't even realise that he'd been silent while I was putting the Time Ring away until he spoke again. "_In any case, with both of those attended to, based on what you've told me, all you need to do now is wait a little while and the reason for this will be clear. Good luck, my boy, Miss Swan_."

With that, the old man smiled at the screen before the message ended, leaving me feeling completely lost and the Doctor with a very grim expression on his face that I didn't like the look of.

"So… who was that old man?" I asked, looking over at the Doctor in confusion, hoping that he could answer the most obvious question.

"Me," the Doctor said.

"You?" I repeated, looking at the screen in confusion. "As in… you from the future-?"

"As in a past me," the Doctor said, as he looked solemnly over at me. "Actually, that was me in my original body, the body I was born- as you'd understand the term- and grew old in; got a bit mixed up about names at times, but he was always the most intellectual of us."

His eyes narrowed. "Which means that, whatever he wanted to say to you, it _had _to be important…"

I was about to ask how the Doctor could be so sure when the TARDIS suddenly shook, followed by a loud explosion in one wall as something came crashing into the TARDIS. I had barely started to scream when I noticed that the damaged walls were already sealing themselves up- at least we probably weren't going to get pulled out of the TARDIS or something like that-, but I quickly felt a new surge of panic when I realised that the think was heading towards the Doctor.

"_Get back_!" the Doctor yelled, shoving me through a gap in the railings around the console before hitting a button on the console. Immediately a transparent barrier, the same colour as the central column, sprang up behind the railings, surrounding the console and the Doctor, leaving the strange object to strike the barrier that had now appeared between it and the Doctor. As I looked at it, I realised that it seemed to be a missile made of a strange white substance that reminded me of the walls I'd seen in some of the TARDIS's deeper corridors, consisting of a simple white pointed tube with some form of energy coming out of the back, but something about it gave me a headache just from looking directly at it…

"What is that?" I asked, turning my attention away from the missile-like thing in confusion; I didn't know what looking at it was doing to me, but I was already sure I didn't want to find out what would happen if I tried to look at it long-term.

"It's a TVM!" the Doctor yelled.

"A _what_?" I asked, looking at him in barely-contained terror; I'd already been concerned, but the obvious panic in the Doctor's manner as he identified the strange thing facing us didn't help me feel calmer. "What's-?"

"Activate the Time Ring!" the Doctor yelled, pressing himself against the console as the… whatever-it-was… continued to press against the force field surrounding it. "This must be the attack that I was talking about; use the Ring and find out what's happening!"

"But what-?" I began in confusion.

"DO IT!" the Doctor yelled at me, just as the forcefield collapsed and the thing continued towards the Doctor. With no other option left to me, I slammed my hand down on the spiralling lines in the Time Ring-

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing on a hill, around half-way up one side, looking out at a battered, ruined city at the bottom of the hill that looked like at least half of it had been destroyed by fire damage, putting me in mind of some of the buildings I'd seen in my old textbooks on Roman history.

For a moment, as I looked up at the night sky, I thought I was just on Earth in the past- the stars looked familiar, and the moon was definitely recognisable-, but then I saw three large spherical ships flying through the air, pursuing a large grey ship in a half-oval shape with wings on its back and blue lights on the side, the two exchanging fire and striking the ground below them, and quickly re-evaluated my initial thoughts.

Whatever other alien invasions had happened in Earth's past and been forgotten about, I didn't think something like _that _would have been mentioned somewhere in some form, which meant there was more going on here than me being stuck in Earth's past while something happened to the Doctor…


	2. OldNew Doctor, NewOld World

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

Time's Ashes

After spending a few moments trying to work out where I was without any sign of finding a useful clue in my immediate surroundings, I finally started walking down towards the village in front of me. It might be dangerous, but it wasn't like I had any other options available to me; I didn't know where I was or what I was meant to do there, but it wasn't hard to guess that the village was my best bet at getting anywhere.

The Doctor's last words to me might have been rushed, but everything he'd said suggested that he was convinced that what had just happened was connected to the Time Rings I'd discovered, which meant that, if his comments were correct, there might be some clue around here that I could use to find what had happened to what I could only presume was Earth.

Presume…

That was what it all came down to right now, when I thought about it; I couldn't do anything more than guess what that older Doctor had meant in that message he'd left in the TARDIS and hope for the best.

In all honestly, if I'd felt out of my depth before when I was thinking about my travels, it was nothing compared to what I felt like now. I didn't even know what had just happened to my TARDIS, apart from the fact that something had attacked the Doctor and Earth suddenly looked like it had been the victim of all kinds of wars. The sky looked fairly familiar to me, and I thought I recalled something about how the position of the stars in the sky varied according to the time on Earth, but I couldn't be certain how accurate that was, even if I had any confidence in my ability to use that kind of information.

As I came up to the village and began to walk through the streets, I tried not to think too much about what I was looking at. If it had been in better condition, the village could been a quaint but comfortable location in Earth's past, but as it was I didn't know when I was and had no idea what could have happened to leave it in this kind of shape, to say nothing of what this had to do with whatever had happened to the Doctor. At first I just stuck to the shadows and alleys trying to see if I could see anything anywhere that might indicate what had happened here- the alien ships I'd seen flying over the village earlier were obvious suspects, but that didn't mean they were the ones responsible-, but after I'd spent a few minutes walking with no sign of activity, I allowed myself to relax and walk at a more normal rate.

The lack of activity had been reassuring at first, but it didn't take long for it to become much less comfortable than it had been. It might mean that I wasn't in danger of being discovered, but the fact that I hadn't seen _any _humans so far wasn't exactly comforting. Not only was it unnerving to walk through a city like this and hear no signs of activity- even in a more primitive city like this one I should still expect to hear sounds from someone, even if it was just a late-night worker or something like that-, but it seriously limited my chances of finding out what was happening if there was nobody to ask questions…

In the silence, the sound of a noise that put me in mind of Dalek weapons from further down the street immediately attracted my attention, and the subsequent sound of voices as people had some kind of argument only further reinforced my interest in what I'd just heard. Moving as quickly as possible, I hurried along the street until I came to a small alleyway between two houses that seemed to lead to the source of the voices. Pressing myself against the wall, I moved down the alley until I saw two men at the other end, my eyes widening as I recognised them both. Not only was one of them an old man in a Victorian-esque dark jacket and brown trousers with swept-back white hair that was clearly the apparently younger Doctor I'd seen on the TARDIS monitor before this happened, but the man standing beside him, with darker hair and a less lined face, dressed in, was apparently a younger version of Steven Taylor.

At least me seeing him now explained the strange expression on Steven's face when he'd been introduced to me during our last meeting; he must have remembered this meeting and briefly wondered what I was doing there before realising that I hadn't experienced this yet (Time travel was _really _complicated; even after seeing Esme when she was still human, I hadn't realised how difficult it was to keep everything in chronological order when you didn't live your life in order any more).

"You have been seized as assets of the glorious Sontaran Empire!" an unfamiliar voice suddenly yelled, this voice coming from someone standing at the other side of the house where I was currently hiding. Taking care to remain pressed against the wall, I slowly edged my way towards the corner before peering around the edge of the wall, allowing me to take a brief look at two surprisingly short figures in dark blue armour with domed, potato-like heads.

Sontarans…

The Doctor had told me only a few stories about some of the creatures he'd encountered over the centuries, but the Sontarans were one of the alien races he'd spent more time talking about than others- a race of clones dedicated to war even when they didn't remember what had started the original conflict-, and one thing he'd mentioned about them was their weakness; if they were struck on the vent positioned on the back of their necks, they could be stunned or even knocked out…

Before I could give myself time to think about it, I grabbed a decently-sized wooden beam from the nearest ruin, raised it over my head, and charged towards the nearest Sontaran, diving behind it and striking it on the back of the neck before it could turn to aim at me; I could doubt many things about my time with the Doctor, but I couldn't doubt that it had improved my speed and balance. As the short, armoured alien fell to the ground, its fellow turned to look at me, only for the old man I'd recognised as the Doctor to raise his walking-stick and strike the other Sontaran on the vent while it was distracted. As the other alien fell to the ground, the old Doctor and Steven Taylor moved to stand above the two Sontarans, striking them each on the probic vent once more, presumably ensuring that they would remain unconscious.

"Well… thank you for your assistance, my dear-" the old man began to say, just before I ran up to the old man and hugged him enthusiastically. I was only brought back to reality when the lack of response reminded me that I was dealing with an apparently younger version of the Doctor I knew who hadn't met me yet, to say nothing of the fact that I didn't know how this Doctor would react to the hug (The Doctor had told me once that his personality changed as well as his appearance when he regenerated, but I hadn't asked for more details at the time; I wasn't going to _let _him regenerate if I could help it).

"Uh… sorry," I said, looking awkwardly at the old man, realising how bizarre my actions must appear to him. "I just… well, it's complicated to explain…"

"Then begin as we walk, my dear," the Doctor said, looking at me with a firm expression that was nevertheless lightened by a smile.

"Starting with why you helped us like that and where everyone else is," Steven said, looking at me even as we began to walk along the streets. "You're the first human being we've seen since we arrived here; what happened?"

"Uh… I don't know," I said, looking apologetically at Steven before I looked at the elderly Doctor. "It's… well, _you _sent me here?"

"I?" the Doctor repeated, looking at me inquiringly.

"Well… I'm pretty sure it was you, anyway; you _are _the Doctor, right?" I said, looking awkwardly at him.

"I am," the old man replied, nodding at me before looking at me more firmly. "And you are?"

"My name's Bella Swan," I replied immediately; the Doctor might have warned me about the dangers of changing history, but I wasn't going to get anywhere without telling this younger Doctor _anything _about me. "I… well, I travel with you in your future."

"Really?" the Doctor said, looking me over with a pointed stare before he smiled. "Well then, it is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Swan; I am the Doctor, as you know, and this is my friend, Steven Taylor."

"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling at the younger man (At least it was easier to conceal my reaction to Steven; I might have met him in the future, but he'd at least been old enough then that I could 'trick' myself into thinking the younger him was someone else without having to think too much about the temporal complexities of this whole mess).

"Same here," Steven said, smiling slightly back at me before looking at me in a more curious manner. "So… how did you get here? I mean, even if you're travelling with a future Doctor, I take it he isn't… _here_?"

"He's not," I confirmed with a nod, before rolling up my sleeve to reveal the Time Ring still attached to my wrist as I held it out in front of him. "I'm still not sure what happened, but… well, we found this in the TARDIS, along with a message from… well, from _this _Doctor, the one we're with now… that told me to put this on and activate it, and… well, things happened, and here I am."

"And what is 'this'?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at the bracelet-like device around my wrist.

"It's a Time Ring," I replied, briefly puzzled at his confusion before I remembered that the Doctor had told me that Time Rings were developed after he originally left Gallifrey; this Doctor must have been too young to know what they were. "From what you told me in the future, they're designed to send people to specific points in time and space once they're activated; you'd… well, from what you said in the message I watched, it sounded like you created these for me so that I could come… well, here."

"I see," the old Doctor said, looking at the bracelet for a moment before looking back at me. "Did this message tell you why you should come here?"

"Not… really…" I said, feeling the inadequacy of my statement, only be distracted by the sight of a small ship- it resembled the one I'd seen earlier flying away from the sphere-ships, except that this one was smaller and sleeker- flying back in the direction that we'd just come, a small blue object underneath it that I immediately recognised.

"The TARDIS!" the Doctor, Steven and I all yelled at once, spinning around to watch helplessly as the blue box that was our only possible point of safety in this damaged world as it vanished into the ship- I guessed that a tractor beam of some sort had been involved in whatever had just happened-, leaving us unable to do anything but stare after it.

Just when I thought I had things under control…


	3. Facing Rejection

Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

AN: More of a filler chapter as the characters work on their next move, but it was necessary to give everyone a chance to clarify what they should do in this situation, as well as introducing a VERY important ally…

Time's Ashes

"Oh no…" I said, looking after the vanishing ship that had just taken the TARDIS in shock, helpless to do anything more than watch as my best chance of finding what had happened to my world vanished.

Things hadn't exactly been very encouraging for me before now, but even in my darkest moments on past travels, I'd always known where the Doctor was and known that the TARDIS was safe even if it had been temporarily inaccessible; right now, I was stuck on what seemed to be a post-apocalyptic Earth, with a Doctor I didn't know and the TARDIS in enemy hands…

"Well," Steven said, looking grimly over at me, "_that_ was an unexpected turn of events."

"Hey, I didn't _know _that was going to happen!" I said, looking at Steven in frustration.

"According to you, the Doctor sent you back here-" Steven began.

"Which merely means that I sent the message informing her that this was about to happen; it does not mean that I will have full knowledge of the situation when Miss Swan receives it," the Doctor said, looking pointedly at Steven.

"Pardon?" Steven said, looking at the Doctor in confusion. "If she travels with you in the future-?"

"If she is from the future, it may be that I have had my memories of this encounter erased in order to preserve the timeline," the Doctor explained, looking pointedly at Steven. "You have already witnessed and understood the potential consequences of changing history during our dealings with the Monk, my boy; have you not considered the risks that we may even unintentionally change history with the knowledge that we acquire of it? Young Vicki's decision to stay with Troilus was permissible due to her lack of detailed knowledge about that period of history, but if I were to become aware of too many details of my own future history during my time with Miss Swan here, who is to say how that will affect how I will react to her when we meet?"

"Oh," Steven said, eyes widening slightly in understanding. "You mean… you'd know you live to the point where you start travelling with her, so… you might not do what you did before because you think you're 'destined' to make it to his age or something like that?"

"Essentially, yes," the Doctor said, before he looked over at me. "You understand me, my dear?"

"I… think so…" I said, looking uncertainly at him. "You're saying that… the you I know didn't remember us meeting now… because you'll erase your memory of this meeting when the problem's over?"

"It is the most encouraging possibility, certainly," the Doctor said, nodding at me and giving me a brief smile before his expression became more solemn. "However, do not think that possibility permits complacency; as you have seen yourself, something has already altered our history, so we must act as though nothing is certain until we have determined the source of the change and act accordingly."

"OK," I said, nodding at the old man out of a lack of anything else I could really do at this point when faced with that news. "Uh… if it helps, before I left… future you, we were attacked by something he called a… a TVM?"

"A TVM?" the Doctor repeated, looking uncertainly at me for a moment before he shook his head. "Unfortunately, the name does not 'ring a bell', as you say; we shall have to operate on the assumption that we know nothing about the cause of this world and hope for the best."

"But… if it was caused by something attacking the future you that she was travelling with, shouldn't we assume that… well…?" Steven began, looking awkwardly at the Doctor.

"That this is because something happened to _me_?" the Doctor said, looking almost amused at the thought. "My dear boy, while I will admit that my travels have been most interesting since I met Chesterton and Miss Wright, I doubt that I am significant enough that something I will or will not do in the future could cause all this."

I thought about pointing out that the Doctor's statement was wrong- he _was _important; just the role he played in ending the Time War alone had saved untold numbers from the Daleks-, but I stopped myself from saying anything; even if the Doctor would be erasing his memory of this once we'd restored the timeline (And we _would _restore it; I wasn't going to let _this _world remain any longer than I had to), nobody should have to live with the knowledge that they were going to do something that terrible…

"Anyway," Steven said, giving me the new topic I'd been hoping for, "what are we going to do now?"

"Well, considering the state of this world, we must presume that whoever took the ship knows precisely what they have acquired," the Doctor said, his expression as he looked at Steven and I. "The TARDIS should be able to withstand their attempts to gain access to it, but we must recover it as soon as possible."

"We do?" I said, looking anxiously at the Doctor. "Is there… is there a reason we need to get it back?"

"Aside from anything else, the three of us will require access to the ship if we are going to ensure our continued survival in this timeline," the Doctor said, grimly indicating our surroundings. "As you have doubtless already noticed, Miss Swan, this is not an accurate reflection of Earth's history, which means that, for the moment, the three of us are anomalies in a universe that is not our own, and we have little idea of how much time it will take for the universe to realise that the anomaly exists and take action."

"Uh…" I said, taking a moment to think about what he'd just said before a suitable interpretation came to me. "You mean… you think that, because this isn't our timeline, the universe will… reject us or something?"

"Essentially, yes," the Doctor said with a nod. "It may not be as serious as all that- we must assume that there are still _some _humans out there whose existences may lead to your births in this timeline-, and my own presence may protect you both for a while even without your time in the TARDIS, but the TARDIS would provide the best protection."

"And we're not going to have any chance of solving this without the ship anyway," I pointed out with a slight smile. "When trying to change history back to what it should be, always best to have your own time machine, right?"

"Indubitably, Miss Swan," the Doctor replied with a smile.

"Hold on…" Steven said, looking thoughtfully at me. "Even if we don't have the TARDIS, Bella told us that she's got that… Time Ring thing; couldn't we use that-?"

"Until we know more about this situation, I would not recommend that Miss Swan activate that second Time Ring," the Doctor said firmly. "She has already been dropped into one dangerous situation with no idea what she is meant to do after arriving here; we cannot send her into another such situation on such limited information, especially when we cannot be certain where that Ring will take her, since I do not know how it works yet."

"And I'm not even sure if that would work anyway," I pointed out. "From what the Doctor told me, these things are only used to go to and from specific locations in time and space; I don't know how to change that, and I'm not even sure if it would work, since the one I used to get here appears to have run down after that trip, so the TARDIS is our best bet."

"Quite, my dear," the Doctor said, smiling at me before he looked thoughtfully after the ship that had taken the TARDIS. "However, while we are considering the changes this world has experienced, I fail to understand what the Raxicoricofallapatorians would want with Earth at this point in history; the Sontarans are a military race who may have claimed this planet for strategic value, but the Raxicoricofallapatorians have little interest in military conquest, so why would they be here of all places…?"

"Uh… can we focus on finding the ship and worry about what particular aliens are doing here later?" I said, looking apologetically at the Doctor as he turned to look at me, just as another thought occurred to me. "And… talking of this point in history, I don't suppose you can work out _when _we are?"

"In Earth's history, you mean?" the Doctor said, looking up at the darkening sky for a moment before he nodded firmly. "Well, I didn't take note of the precise location when Steven and I left the ship, but based on the position of the stars, we appear to be in around the late twentieth century, around England."

"Oh," I said, looking at the world around me with a new sense of the scale of what we were dealing with.

I had only been to England a couple of months ago with the Doctor from my perspective- when thinking of my trip to London during that mess with the Swarm at Easter in 2008, anyway; I hadn't exactly been out and about when we were protecting Sarah from the Trickster around the same time-, and now something had turned it into _this_?

What could have remade the world I knew into this… mess…?

And what did it have to do with that 'TVM' thing that had attacked us back in the TARDIS…?

"I know that it is unnerving, my dear, but we have to focus on what matters," the Doctor said, looking firmly between Steven and I, his firm voice bringing me back to reality; this Doctor might be older, but he could manage an authoritative tone on far shorter notice than the Doctor I knew. "We shall accomplish nothing if we do not focus on the immediate priority of recovering the ship, which means that we must track that vehicle's trajectory and find where it has landed."

"You're… you think it _landed _somewhere?" I asked, a new sense of hope filling me at that news; I'd been worried that the ship could have taken the TARDIS to a different planet rather than staying somewhere where he could at least theoretically reclaim it. "I mean, if it's alien, couldn't they have just left-?"

"The angle was all wrong for a ship that intended to break atmosphere, my dear," the Doctor said, smiling reassuringly at me before he shifted his gaze back in the direction that the ship had flown off towards. "It will take us time to get there, but since I saw it descending before it reached the horizon, I doubt that it had far to travel; we must move on to find it as quickly as possible."

"Just recover the ship?" I asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor. "If history's been changed, shouldn't we try and find out what-?"

"The situation is exceptional, I grant you, but we must focus on the immediate practicalities of what we can accomplish," the Doctor explained. "Something has certainly happened to history to put us in this position, but until we can determine what that is, we must proceed as though this is a normal situation and regain the TARDIS as soon as possible; thinking about the other issues involved in this situation will accomplish nothing."

"And… what are the… other issues?" I asked, looking anxiously at him.

"Since we are on Earth after history has been altered, and I will apparently decide to make arrangements to send you here at some point in my future, it seems reasonable to assume that the two events are inter-connected," the Doctor explained. "Until we know otherwise, I feel that we can comfortably assume that whatever was responsible for this change in history was also responsible for the attack that you encountered in my future- the synchronicity of events cannot be a coincidence-, but we have no way of tracing what happened to me until we know where and when things changed here."

"Which means we need the TARDIS to try and track where history diverged from what's recorded in its databanks?" Steven asked.

"Precisely," the Doctor said, indicating the road ahead of us with a smile. "Shall we-?"

He was suddenly cut off mid-sentence as something grabbed him by his coat and hauled him into a nearby house, the same thing grabbing Steven and I almost simultaneously before we found ourselves lying on the floor, looking up at the tall figure that had just grabbed us.

It had been months since I'd seen something move that fast, but I would never forget what was capable of that kind of rapid motion, even if the figure in front of us didn't confirm what we were dealing with. The man himself was unfamiliar to me, and had a long, thin face with long dark hair and a haunted expression that put me in mind of Edward when he was reflecting on his past (Under any other circumstances, I would have been pleased to note that I didn't feel any pain thinking about Edward, but this wasn't the time to consider something like that), dressed in tattered but still-clean clothes with eyes in an unusual shade of orange, but his pale skin made his nature clear.

We'd just been discovered by a _vampire_…

* * *

AN 2: Anyone care to guess who they've just met?

All I'll say for now is that he's appeared in canon, but Bella hadn't met him by the point where the Doctor intervened in her life…


End file.
